Gene expression associated to chemosensing in the parasitoid Diachasmimorpha longicaudata (Hymenoptera: Braconidae)

DEVESCOVI, FRANCISCO; SEGURA, DIEGO FERNANDO ; WULFF, JUAN PEDRO; LANZAVECCHIA, SILVIA

Bogota

Congreso; Americas Congress on Fruit Flies and the 10th Meeting of Tephritids Workers of the Western Hemisphere; 2020

Entomological Society of America

Diachasmimorpha longicaudata Ashmead is a solitary endoparasitoid considered the main biological control agent of tephritid fruit flies of economic importance. Females parasitize late instar larvae of several fruit fly species, such as Ceratitis capitata and Anastrepha fraterculus Wiedemann. Current methods of monitoring the efficiency of D. longicaudata as a biological control agent are limited to the sampling of infested fruit and the recording of the parasitism rate. Numerous ecological and behavioral studies have addressed key issues of D. longicaudata foraging behavior. Recent works have identified volatile compounds from infested fruits possibly guiding female parasitoids to their host larvae. Conversely, little information is available on the molecular mechanisms driving this behavior. In the present work we performed a functional analysis of transcripts potentially associated to odor detection in this species. We carried out a bioinformatic screening of a whole-body transcriptome of D. longicaudata and identified transcripts annotated as odorant binding proteins (OBPs) and chemosensory proteins (CSPs). After a phylogenetic analysis and a tissue expression profiling, fourteen OBPS and seven CSPs were selected and characterized. Functional analyses of a selection of genes were performed through behavioral and molecular tests in which the gene expression was silenced by RNAi in adult females. Preliminary results showed that several of the selected genes are linked to the foraging behavior. This is the first molecular approach to the study of chemosensing in D. longicaudata. Our results will be of help to explore the molecular pathway involved in the perception of odors associated to oviposition and set the bases of further studies on the development of attractive baits for monitoring parasitoid performance in the field.